Dark Whimsy Favorites Dissected
Rick Retro’s Realm, Project #3: 51 Dark Whimsy Favorites in 80 Days, Ranking the Decades, Nationalities and Production Studios.
Just for fun, let’s add in to our list of Dark Whimsy Favorites the seven A+ Dark Whimsy Christmas favorites that we’ve already reviewed (###), and then slice and dice the list to see what the 58 films have in common.
For example, how do the top decades rank? I counted it up, so you don’t have to!
1 1980s 25
2 2000s 10
3 1990s 9
4 1970s 4
- 1960s 4
6 2010s 2
And here are the Nationalities of Origin of the films:
1 United States $ 45
2 United Kingdom £ 9
3 Australia ¢AU 1
-- Hong Kong ¥HK 1
-- Italy €IT 1
-- South Africa €SA 1
And the top Production Studios:
1 Walt Disney (WD) 4
-- Warner Bros. (WB) 4
3 Amblin (Amb) 3
-- Touchstone Pictures (TP) 3
-- Universal Pictures (UP) 3
6 20th Century Fox (20C) 2
-- Act III (A3) 2
-- Columbia Pictures (CP) 2
-- Henson Productions (Hen) 2
-- Hughes Entertainment (HE) 2
-- Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) 2
-- Pixar Animation Studios (Pix) 2
-- Silver Screen Partners III (SSP) 2
-- Working Title Films (WTF) 2
Now here’s the list, with notations so you can see what's what:
#0 (1939) The Wizard of Oz $ MGM
#1 (1944) Arsenic and Old Lace $ WB
#2 (1959) The Mouse That Roared £
#3 (1963) The Pink Panther $
#4 (1965) The Sound of Music $
#5 (1965) The Great Race $ WB
#6 (1968) The Love Bug $ WD
#7 (1973) The Sting $ UP
#8 (1975) Monty Python and the Holy Grail £
#9 (1979) The Muppet Movie £ Hen
#10 (1979) Being There $
#11 (1980) Airplane! $
#12 (1980) Oh! Heavenly Dog $
#13 (1980) The Gods Must Be Crazy €SA
#14 (1981) Arthur $
#15 (1982) E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial $ Amb
#16 (1982) Tootsie $
#17 (1983) The Man With Two Brains $
### (1983) A Christmas Story $ MGM
#18 (1984) Romancing the Stone $
#19 (1984) The Natural $
### (1984) Gremlins $ WB Amb
#20 (1984) Electric Dreams £
#21 (1985) Re-Animator $
#22 (1986) Stand by Me $ A3
#23 (1986) Little Shop of Horrors $
#24 (1987) Raising Arizona $
#25 (1987) Roxanne $ CP
#26 (1987) The Princess Bride $ A3
#27 (1987) Planes, Trains & Automobiles $ HE
#28 (1988) Big $
#29 (1988) Who Framed Roger Rabbit $ TP Amb SSP
#30 (1988) Moon Over Parador $ UP
#31 (1989) Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure $
#32 (1989) Honey, I Shrunk the Kids $ WD SSP
### (1989) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation $ HE
### (1990) Edward Scissorhands $ 20C
#33 (1991) Armour of God 2: Operation Condor ¥HK
### (1992) The Muppet Christmas Carol $ WD Hen
#34 (1993) Groundhog Day $ CP
### (1993) The Nightmare Before Christmas $ TP
#35 (1995) Toy Story $ Pix
#36 (1996) Fargo £ WTF
#37 (1997) Life Is Beautiful €IT
#38 (1999) The Castle ¢AU
#39 (2000) O Brother, Where Art Thou? £ TP UP WTF
#40 (2001) Shrek $
#41 (2001) Monsters, Inc. $ Pix
#42 (2001) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone £ WB
#43 (2002) Chicago $
### (2003) Elf $
#44 (2004) Bride and Prejudice £
#45 (2004) A Series of Unfortunate Events $
#46 (2005) The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe $ WD
#47 (2007) Stardust £
#48 (2013) Epic $ 20C
#49 (2014) The Grand Budapest Hotel $
#50 (2022) A Christmas Story Christmas $
Next time, we’ll take a look at the people involved...
Originally posted to text group 2025-01-20
Last updated 2025-03-31